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College Application Essay Format Rules

The college application essay has become the most important part of applying to college. In this article, we will go over the  best college essay format for getting into top schools, including how to structure the elements of a college admissions essay: margins, font, paragraphs, spacing, headers, and organization. 

We will focus on commonly asked questions about the best college essay structure. Finally, we will go over essay formatting tips and examples.

Table of Contents

• General college essay formatting rules
• How to format a college admissions essay
• Sections of a college admissions essay
• College application essay format examples

General College Essay Format Rules

Before talking about how to format your college admission essays, we need to talk about general college essay formatting rules.

Pay attention to word count

It has been well-established that the most important rule of college application essays is to  not go over the specific Application Essay word limit .  The word limit for the Common Application essay is typically 500-650 words.

Not only may it be impossible to go over the word count (in the case of the  Common Application essay , which uses text fields), but admissions officers often use software that will throw out any essay that breaks this rule. Following directions is a key indicator of being a successful student. 

Refocusing on the essay prompt and eliminating unnecessary adverbs, filler words, and prepositional phrases will help improve your essay.

On the other hand, it is advisable to use almost every available word. The college essay application field is very competitive, so leaving extra words on the table puts you at a disadvantage. Include an example or anecdote near the end of your essay to meet the total word count.

Do not write a wall of text: use paragraphs

Here is a brutal truth:  College admissions counselors only read the application essays that help them make a decision .  Otherwise, they will not read the essay at all. The problem is that you do not know whether the rest of your application (transcripts, academic record, awards, etc.) will be competitive enough to get you accepted.

A very simple writing rule for your application essay (and for essay editing of any type) is to  make your writing readable by adding line breaks and separate paragraphs.

Line breaks do not count toward word count, so they are a very easy way to organize your essay structure, ideas, and topics. Remember, college counselors, if you’re lucky, will spend 30 sec to 1 minute reading your essay. Give them every opportunity to understand your writing.

Do not include an essay title 

Unless specifically required, do not use a title for your personal statement or essay. This is a waste of your word limit and is redundant since the essay prompt itself serves as the title.

Never use overly casual, colloquial, or text message-based formatting like this: 

THIS IS A REALLY IMPORTANT POINT!. #collegeapplication #collegeessay.

Under no circumstances should you use emojis, all caps, symbols, hashtags, or slang in a college essay. Although technology, texting, and social media are continuing to transform how we use modern language (what a great topic for a college application essay!), admissions officers will view the use of these casual formatting elements as immature and inappropriate for such an important document.

How To Format A College Application Essay

There are many  tips for writing college admissions essays . How you upload your college application essay depends on whether you will be cutting and pasting your essay into a text box in an online application form or attaching a formatted document.

Save and upload your college essay in the proper format

Check the application instructions if you’re not sure what you need to do. Currently, the Common Application requires you to copy and paste your essay into a text box.

There are three main formats when it comes to submitting your college essay or personal statement:

If submitting your application essay in a text box

For the Common Application, there is no need to attach a document since there is a dedicated input field. You still want to write your essay in a word processor or Google doc. Just make sure once you copy-paste your essay into the text box that your line breaks (paragraphs), indents, and formatting is retained. 

• Formatting like  bold , underline, and  italics  are often lost when copy-pasting into a text box.
• Double-check that you are under the word limit.  Word counts may be different within the text box .
• Make sure that paragraphs and spacing are maintained;  text input fields often undo indents and double-spacing .
• If possible, make sure the font is standardized.  Text input boxes usually allow just one font . 

If submitting your application essay as a document

When attaching a document, you must do more than just double-check the format of your admissions essay. You need to be proactive and make sure the structure is logical and will be attractive to readers.

Microsoft Word (.DOC) format

If you are submitting your application essay as a file upload, then you will likely submit a .doc or .docx file. The downside is that MS Word files are editable, and there are sometimes conflicts between different MS Word versions (2010 vs 2016 vs Office365). The upside is that Word can be opened by almost any text program.

This is a safe choice if maintaining the  visual  elements of your essay is important. Saving your essay as a PDF prevents any formatting issues that come with Microsoft Word, since older versions are sometimes incompatible with the newer formatting. 

Although PDF viewing programs are commonly available, many older readers and Internet users (who will be your admissions officers) may not be ready to view PDFs.

• Use 1-inch margins . This is the default setting for Microsoft Word. However, students from Asia using programs like Hangul Word Processor will need to double-check.
• Use a standard serif font.  These include Times New Roman, Courier, and Garamond. A serif font adds professionalism to your essay.
• Use standard 12-font size. 
• Use 1.5- or double-spacing.  Your application essay should be readable. Double spaces are not an issue as the essay should already fit on one page.
• Add a Header  with your First Name, Last Name, university, and other required information.
• Clearly   separate your paragraphs.  By default, just press ‘ENTER’ twice.

Sections Of A College Admissions Essay

University admissions protocols usually allow you to choose the format and style of your writing. Despite this, the general format of “Introduction-Body-Conclusion” is the most common structure. This is a common format you can use and adjust to your specific writing style.

College Application Essay Introduction

Typically, your first paragraph should introduce you or the topic that you will discuss. You must have a killer opener if you want the admissions committees to pay attention. 

Essays that use rhetorical tools, factual statements, dialog, etc. are encouraged. There is room to be creative since many application essays specifically focus on past learning experiences.

College Application Essay Body

Clearly answering the essay prompt is the most important part of the essay body. Keep reading over the prompt and making sure everything in the body supports it. 

Since personal statement essays are designed to show you are as a person and student, the essay body is also where you talk about your experiences and identity.

Make sure you include the following life experiences and how they relate to the essay prompt. Be sure to double-check that they relate back to the essay prompt. A college admissions essay is NOT an autobiography:

Personal challenges

• How did you overcome them?
• How or how much do past challenges define your current outlook or worldview? 
• What did you learn about yourself when you failed?

Personal achievements and successes

• What people helped you along the way?
• What did you learn about the nature of success

Lessons learned

• In general, did your experiences inform your choice of university or major?

Personal beliefs

• Politics, philosophy, and religion may be included here, but be careful when discussing sensitive personal or political topics. 
• Academic goals
• Personal goals
• Professional goals
• How will attending the university help you achieve these goals?

College Application Essay Conclusion

The conclusion section is a call to action directly aimed at the admissions officers. You must demonstrate why you are a great fit for the university, which means you should refer to specific programs, majors, or professors that guided or inspired you. 

In this “why this school” part of the essay, you can also explain why the university is a great fit for  your  goals. Be straightforward and truthful, but express your interest in the school boldly.

College Application Essay Format Examples

Here are several formatting examples of successful college admission essays, along with comments from the essay editor.

Note: Actual sample essays edited by  Wordvice professional editors .  Personal info has been redacted for privacy. This is not a college essay template.

College Admission Essay Example 1

This essay asks the student to write about how normal life experiences can have huge effects on personal growth:

Common App Essay Prompt: Thoughtful Rides

The Florida turnpike is a very redundant and plain expressway; we do not have the scenic luxury of mountains, forests, or even deserts stretching endlessly into the distance. Instead, we are blessed with repetitive fields of grazing cows and countless billboards advertising local businesses. I have been subjected to these monotonous views three times a week, driving two hours every other day to Sunrise and back to my house in Miami, Florida—all to practice for my competitive soccer team in hopes of receiving a scholarship to play soccer at the next level. 

The Introduction sets up a clear, visceral memory and communicates a key extracurricular activity. 

When I first began these mini road trips, I would jam out to my country playlist and sing along with my favorite artists, and the trek would seem relatively short. However, after listening to “Beautiful Crazy” by Luke Combs for the 48th time in a week, the song became as repetitive as the landscape I was driving through. Changing genres did not help much either; everything I played seemed to morph into the same brain-numbing sound.  Eventually, I decided to do what many peers in my generation fail to do: turn off the distractions, enjoy the silence, and immerse myself in my own thoughts. In the end, this seemingly simple decision led to a lot of personal growth and tranquility in my life. 

The first part of the Body connects the student’s past experience with the essay prompt: personal growth and challenging assumptions.

Although I did not fully realize it at the time, these rides were the perfect opportunity to reflect on myself and the people around me. I quickly began noticing the different personalities surrounding me in the flow of traffic, and this simple act of noticing reminded me that I was not the only human on this planet that mattered. I was just as unimportant as the woman sitting in the car next to mine. Conversely, I also came to appreciate how a gesture as simple as letting another driver merge into your lane can impact a stranger’s day. Maybe the other driver is late for a work interview or rushing to the hospital because their newborn is running a high fever and by allowing them to advance in the row of cars, you made their day just a little less stressful. I realized that if I could improve someone else’s day from my car,  I could definitely be a kinder person and take other people’s situations into consideration—because you never know if someone is having one of the worst days of their lives and their interaction with you could provide the motivation they need to keep going on . 

This part uses two examples to support the writer’s answer to the essay prompt. It ends the paragraph with a clear statement.

Realizing I was not the only being in the universe that mattered was not the only insight I attained during these drives. Over and over, I asked myself why I had chosen to change soccer clubs, leaving Pinecrest, the team I had played on for 8 years with my best friends and that was only a 10-minute drive from my house, to play for a completely unfamiliar team that required significantly more travel.  Eventually, I came to understand that I truly enjoy challenging myself and pushing past complacency . One of my main goals in life is to play and experience college soccer—that, and to eventually pursue a career as a doctor. Ultimately, leaving my comfort zone in Pinecrest, where mediocrity was celebrated, to join a team in Sunrise, where championships were expected and college offers were abundant, was a very positive decision in my life. 

This part clearly tells how the experience shaped the writer as a person. The student’s personality can be directly attributed to this memory. It also importantly states personal and academic goals.

Even if I do not end up playing college soccer, I know now that I will never back down from any challenge in my life; I am committed to pushing myself past my comfort zone. These car rides have given me insight into how strong I truly am and how much impact I can have on other people’s lives. 

The Conclusion restates the overall lesson learned.

College Admission Essay Example 2

The next essay asks the reader to use leadership roles or extracurricular activities and describe the experience, contribution, and what the student learned about themselves.

As I release the air from the blood-pressure monitor’s valve, I carefully track the gauge, listening for the faint “lub-dub” of  Winnie’s heart. Checking off the “hypertensive” box on his medical chart when reading 150/95, I then escort Winnie to the blood sugar station. This was the typical procedure of a volunteer at the UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic. Our traveling medical clinic operated at night, visiting various Connecticut farms to provide healthcare for migrant workers. Filling out charts, taking blood pressure, and recording BMI were all standard procedures, but the relationships I built with farmers such as Winnie impacted me the most.

This Introduction is very impactful. It highlights the student’s professional expertise as a healthcare worker and her impact on marginalized communities. It also is written in the present tense to add impact.

While the clinic was canceled this year due to COVID-19, I still wanted to do something for them. During a PPE-drive meeting this July, Winnie recounted his family history. I noticed his eyebrows furrow with anxiety as he spoke about his family’s safety in Tierra Blanca, Mexico. I realized that Winnie lacked substantial information about his hometown, and fear-mongering headlines did nothing to assuage his fears. After days of searching, I discovered that his hometown, Guanajuato, reported fewer cases of COVID-19 in comparison with surrounding towns. I then created a color-coded map of his town, showing rates across the different districts. Winnie’s eyes softened, marveling at the map I made for him this August. I didn’t need to explain what he saw: Guanajuato, his home state, was pale yellow, the color I chose to mark the lowest level of cases. By making this map, I didn’t intend to give him new hope; I wanted to show him where hope was.

The student continues to tell the powerful story of one of her patients. This humbles and empowers the student, motivating her in the next paragraph.

This interaction fueled my commitment to search for hope in my journey of becoming a public health official. Working in public health policy, I hope to tackle complex world problems, such as economic and social barriers to healthcare and find creative methods of improving outcomes in queer and Latinx communities. I want to study the present and potential future intervention strategies in minority communities for addressing language barriers to information including language on posters and gendered language, and for instituting social and support services for community youth. These stepping stones will hopefully prepare me for conducting professional research for the Medical Organization for Latino Advancement. I aspire to be an active proponent of healthcare access and equity for marginalized groups, including queer communities. I first learned about the importance of recognizing minority identities in healthcare through my bisexual sister, Sophie, and her nonbinary friend, Gilligan. During discussions with her friends, I realized the importance of validating diverse gender expressions in all facets of my life.

Here, the past experience is directly connected to future academic and professional goals, which themselves are motivated by a desire to increase access among communities as well as personal family experiences. This is a strong case for why personal identity is so important.

My experiences with Winnie and my sister have empowered me to be creative, thoughtful, and brave while challenging the assumptions currently embedded in the “visual vocabulary” of both the art and science fields. I envision myself deconstructing hegemonic ideas of masculinity and femininity and surmounting the limitations of traditional perceptions of male and female bodies as it relates to existing healthcare practices. Through these subtle changes, I aim to make a large impact.

The Conclusion positions the student as an impactful leader and visionary. This is a powerful case for the admissions board to consider.

If you want to read more college admissions essay examples, check out our articles about  successful college personal statements  and the  2021-2022 Common App prompts and example essays .

Wordvice offers a full suite of proofreading and editing services . If you are a student applying to college and are having trouble with the best college admissions essay format, check out our application essay editing services  (including personal statement editing ) and find out  how much online proofreading costs . 

Finally, don’t forget to receive common app essay editing and professional admissions editing for any other admissions documents for college, university, and post-doctoral programs.

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How to Format A College Essay: 15 Expert Tips

College Essays

When you're applying to college, even small decisions can feel high-stakes. This is especially true for the college essay, which often feels like the most personal part of the application. You may agonize over your college application essay format: the font, the margins, even the file format. Or maybe you're agonizing over how to organize your thoughts overall. Should you use a narrative structure? Five paragraphs?

In this comprehensive guide, we'll go over the ins and outs of how to format a college essay on both the micro and macro levels. We'll discuss minor formatting issues like headings and fonts, then discuss broad formatting concerns like whether or not to use a five-paragraph essay, and if you should use a college essay template.

How to Format a College Essay: Font, Margins, Etc.

Some of your formatting concerns will depend on whether you will be cutting and pasting your essay into a text box on an online application form or attaching a formatted document. If you aren't sure which you'll need to do, check the application instructions. Note that the Common Application does currently require you to copy and paste your essay into a text box.

Most schools also allow you to send in a paper application, which theoretically gives you increased control over your essay formatting. However, I generally don't advise sending in a paper application (unless you have no other option) for a couple of reasons:

Most schools state that they prefer to receive online applications. While it typically won't affect your chances of admission, it is wise to comply with institutional preferences in the college application process where possible. It tends to make the whole process go much more smoothly.

Paper applications can get lost in the mail. Certainly there can also be problems with online applications, but you'll be aware of the problem much sooner than if your paper application gets diverted somehow and then mailed back to you. By contrast, online applications let you be confident that your materials were received.

Regardless of how you will end up submitting your essay, you should draft it in a word processor. This will help you keep track of word count, let you use spell check, and so on.

Next, I'll go over some of the concerns you might have about the correct college essay application format, whether you're copying and pasting into a text box or attaching a document, plus a few tips that apply either way.

Formatting Guidelines That Apply No Matter How You End Up Submitting the Essay:

Unless it's specifically requested, you don't need a title. It will just eat into your word count.

Avoid cutesy, overly colloquial formatting choices like ALL CAPS or ~unnecessary symbols~ or, heaven forbid, emoji and #hashtags. Your college essay should be professional, and anything too cutesy or casual will come off as immature.

Mmm, delicious essay...I mean sandwich.

Why College Essay Templates Are a Bad Idea

You might see college essay templates online that offer guidelines on how to structure your essay and what to say in each paragraph. I strongly advise against using a template. It will make your essay sound canned and bland—two of the worst things a college essay can be. It's much better to think about what you want to say, and then talk through how to best structure it with someone else and/or make your own practice outlines before you sit down to write.

You can also find tons of successful sample essays online. Looking at these to get an idea of different styles and topics is fine, but again, I don't advise closely patterning your essay after a sample essay. You will do the best if your essay really reflects your own original voice and the experiences that are most meaningful to you.

College Application Essay Format: Key Takeaways

There are two levels of formatting you might be worried about: the micro (fonts, headings, margins, etc) and the macro (the overall structure of your essay).

Tips for the micro level of your college application essay format:

• Always draft your essay in a word processing software, even if you'll be copy-and-pasting it over into a text box.
• If you are copy-and-pasting it into a text box, make sure your formatting transfers properly, your paragraphs are clearly delineated, and your essay isn't cut off.
• If you are attaching a document, make sure your font is easily readable, your margins are standard 1-inch, your essay is 1.5 or double-spaced, and your file format is compatible with the application specs.
• There's no need for a title unless otherwise specified—it will just eat into your word count.

Tips for the macro level of your college application essay format :

• There is no super-secret college essay format that will guarantee success.
• In terms of structure, it's most important that you have an introduction that makes it clear where you're going and a conclusion that wraps up with a main point. For the middle of your essay, you have lots of freedom, just so long as it flows logically!
• I advise against using an essay template, as it will make your essay sound stilted and unoriginal.

Plus, if you use a college essay template, how will you get rid of these medieval weirdos?

What's Next?

Still feeling lost? Check out our total guide to the personal statement , or see our step-by-step guide to writing the perfect essay .

If you're not sure where to start, consider these tips for attention-grabbing first sentences to college essays!

And be sure to avoid these 10 college essay mistakes .

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Ellen has extensive education mentorship experience and is deeply committed to helping students succeed in all areas of life. She received a BA from Harvard in Folklore and Mythology and is currently pursuing graduate studies at Columbia University.

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A header for an essay is an important part of APA or MLA formatting guidelines . In this article, we’ll find out the purpose of an essay header, how to format it, and the APA and MLA essay header variations.

A properly formatted header helps your professor quickly and easily identify your essay. In APA format , the essay header also carries a gist of your larger topic, providing the reader with basic information about your essay in one glance.

Let’s take a more detailed look at how to write a header for an essay.

Ensure top-notch essay formatting! Get started

What is a header in an essay?

A header for an essay is a line of text typically included at the top of the page. The content of the header depends on your essay header format. The MLA essay header includes your last name whereas the APA essay header includes a shortened title of your essay.

The use of a header is especially important in longer essays, as it helps professors navigate the document with ease. The page number helps them locate specific information quickly and the author’s name helps them associate each essay with the student who wrote it. 

MLA essay header

The Modern Language Association (MLA), often used in literature and humanities essays, requires a specific type of header. It consists of your last name, followed by a space and then the page number. Thus, the MLA essay header helps the instructor easily associate your work with you amidst a sea of other assignments.

The header for an MLA format essay is typically placed in the top right-hand corner of each page of the document. The information is right-aligned, double-spaced, and is usually preceded by a 0.5-inch margin. 

Here’s an essay header example to help you understand:

It is important to note that the MLA essay header is not the same as a title page. The title page is a separate page that includes the essay title, your name, the course title, and the date of submission. The MLA format essay header is simply a standardized way to format page numbers and your personal information within the document itself.

APA essay header

The American Psychological Association (APA) usually requires a header to be included in both student and professional essays. The APA essay header includes an abbreviated title of the essay along with the page number.

The title should be in all capital letters and should not be more than 50 characters long. It should be included on the top left corner of the page. The page number should be included opposite the title, in the top right corner of the page.

Take a look at this essay header example:

It is important to note that running head in an APA essay header is optional for students but compulsory for professionals. While the header must be present in both types of APA essays, the elements differ.

How to write a header for an essay

1. To activate the header for an essay, double-right-click on the top of the page.

If you need additional help with headers and other formatting guidelines, you can also consider working with a professional essay editing service .  

Want to keep reading? Here are the newest articles we’ve worked on:

• How to Write an Essay in 8 Simple Steps
• Learn About What is an Essay and Parts of an Essay 
• How to Write an Essay Outline

Frequently Asked Questions

Are the header and title exactly the same, should i use my full name in the mla header, what are running apa headers.

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College essays are an entirely new type of writing for high school seniors. For that reason, many students are confused about proper formatting and essay structure. Should you double-space or single-space? Do you need a title? What kind of narrative style is best-suited for your topic?

In this post, we’ll be going over proper college essay format, traditional and unconventional essay structures (plus sample essays!), and which structure might work best for you. 

General College Essay Formatting Guidelines

How you format your essay will depend on whether you’re submitting in a text box, or attaching a document. We’ll go over the different best practices for both, but regardless of how you’re submitting, here are some general formatting tips:

• There’s no need for a title; it takes up unnecessary space and eats into your word count
• Stay within the word count as much as possible (+/- 10% of the upper limit). For further discussion on college essay length, see our post How Long Should Your College Essay Be?
• Indent or double space to separate paragraphs clearly

If you’re submitting in a text box:

• Avoid italics and bold, since formatting often doesn’t transfer over in text boxes
• Be careful with essays meant to be a certain shape (like a balloon); text boxes will likely not respect that formatting. Beyond that, this technique can also seem gimmicky, so proceed with caution
• Make sure that paragraphs are clearly separated, as text boxes can also undo indents and double spacing

If you’re attaching a document:

• Use a standard font and size like Times New Roman, 12 point
• Make your lines 1.5-spaced or double-spaced
• Use 1-inch margins
• Save as a PDF since it can’t be edited. This also prevents any formatting issues that come with Microsoft Word, since older versions are sometimes incompatible with the newer formatting
• Number each page with your last name in the header or footer (like “Smith 1”)
• Pay extra attention to any word limits, as you won’t be cut off automatically, unlike with most text boxes

Conventional College Essay Structures

Now that we’ve gone over the logistical aspects of your essay, let’s talk about how you should structure your writing. There are three traditional college essay structures. They are:

• In-the-moment narrative
• Narrative told over an extended period of time
• Series of anecdotes, or montage

Let’s go over what each one is exactly, and take a look at some real essays using these structures.

1. In-the-moment narrative

This is where you tell the story one moment at a time, sharing the events as they occur. In the moment narrative is a powerful essay format, as your reader experiences the events, your thoughts, and your emotions with you . This structure is ideal for a specific experience involving extensive internal dialogue, emotions, and reflections.

Here’s an example:

The morning of the Model United Nation conference, I walked into Committee feeling confident about my research. We were simulating the Nuremberg Trials – a series of post-World War II proceedings for war crimes – and my portfolio was of the Soviet Judge Major General Iona Nikitchenko. Until that day, the infamous Nazi regime had only been a chapter in my history textbook; however, the conference’s unveiling of each defendant’s crimes brought those horrors to life. The previous night, I had organized my research, proofread my position paper and gone over Judge Nikitchenko’s pertinent statements. I aimed to find the perfect balance between his stance and my own.

As I walked into committee anticipating a battle of wits, my director abruptly called out to me. “I’m afraid we’ve received a late confirmation from another delegate who will be representing Judge Nikitchenko. You, on the other hand, are now the defense attorney, Otto Stahmer.” Everyone around me buzzed around the room in excitement, coordinating with their allies and developing strategies against their enemies, oblivious to the bomb that had just dropped on me. I felt frozen in my tracks, and it seemed that only rage against the careless delegate who had confirmed her presence so late could pull me out of my trance. After having spent a month painstakingly crafting my verdicts and gathering evidence against the Nazis, I now needed to reverse my stance only three hours before the first session.

Gradually, anger gave way to utter panic. My research was fundamental to my performance, and without it, I knew I could add little to the Trials. But confident in my ability, my director optimistically recommended constructing an impromptu defense. Nervously, I began my research anew. Despite feeling hopeless, as I read through the prosecution’s arguments, I uncovered substantial loopholes. I noticed a lack of conclusive evidence against the defendants and certain inconsistencies in testimonies. My discovery energized me, inspiring me to revisit the historical overview in my conference “Background Guide” and to search the web for other relevant articles. Some Nazi prisoners had been treated as “guilty” before their court dates. While I had brushed this information under the carpet while developing my position as a judge, it now became the focus of my defense. I began scratching out a new argument, centered on the premise that the allied countries had violated the fundamental rule that, a defendant was “not guilty” until proven otherwise.

At the end of the three hours, I felt better prepared. The first session began, and with bravado, I raised my placard to speak. Microphone in hand, I turned to face my audience. “Greetings delegates. I, Otto Stahmer would like to…….” I suddenly blanked. Utter dread permeated my body as I tried to recall my thoughts in vain. “Defence Attorney, Stahmer we’ll come back to you,” my Committee Director broke the silence as I tottered back to my seat, flushed with embarrassment. Despite my shame, I was undeterred. I needed to vindicate my director’s faith in me. I pulled out my notes, refocused, and began outlining my arguments in a more clear and direct manner. Thereafter, I spoke articulately, confidently putting forth my points. I was overjoyed when Secretariat members congratulated me on my fine performance.

Going into the conference, I believed that preparation was the key to success. I wouldn’t say I disagree with that statement now, but I believe adaptability is equally important. My ability to problem-solve in the face of an unforeseen challenge proved advantageous in the art of diplomacy. Not only did this experience transform me into a confident and eloquent delegate at that conference, but it also helped me become a more flexible and creative thinker in a variety of other capacities. Now that I know I can adapt under pressure, I look forward to engaging in activities that will push me to be even quicker on my feet.

This essay is an excellent example of in-the-moment narration. The student openly shares their internal state with us — we feel their anger and panic upon the reversal of roles. We empathize with their emotions of “utter dread” and embarrassment when they’re unable to speak. 

For in-the-moment essays, overloading on descriptions is a common mistake students make. This writer provides just the right amount of background and details to help us understand the situation, however, and balances out the actual event with reflection on the significance of this experience. 

One main area of improvement is that the writer sometimes makes explicit statements that could be better illustrated through their thoughts, actions, and feelings. For instance, they say they “spoke articulately” after recovering from their initial inability to speak, and they also claim that adaptability has helped them in other situations. This is not as engaging as actual examples that convey the same meaning. Still, this essay overall is a strong example of in-the-moment narration, and gives us a relatable look into the writer’s life and personality.

2. Narrative told over an extended period of time

In this essay structure, you share a story that takes place across several different experiences. This narrative style is well-suited for any story arc with multiple parts. If you want to highlight your development over time, you might consider this structure. 

When I was younger, I was adamant that no two foods on my plate touch. As a result, I often used a second plate to prevent such an atrocity. In many ways, I learned to separate different things this way from my older brothers, Nate and Rob. Growing up, I idolized both of them. Nate was a performer, and I insisted on arriving early to his shows to secure front row seats, refusing to budge during intermission for fear of missing anything. Rob was a three-sport athlete, and I attended his games religiously, waving worn-out foam cougar paws and cheering until my voice was hoarse. My brothers were my role models. However, while each was talented, neither was interested in the other’s passion. To me, they represented two contrasting ideals of what I could become: artist or athlete. I believed I had to choose.

And for a long time, I chose athlete. I played soccer, basketball, and lacrosse and viewed myself exclusively as an athlete, believing the arts were not for me. I conveniently overlooked that since the age of five, I had been composing stories for my family for Christmas, gifts that were as much for me as them, as I loved writing. So when in tenth grade, I had the option of taking a creative writing class, I was faced with a question: could I be an athlete and a writer? After much debate, I enrolled in the class, feeling both apprehensive and excited. When I arrived on the first day of school, my teacher, Ms. Jenkins, asked us to write down our expectations for the class. After a few minutes, eraser shavings stubbornly sunbathing on my now-smudged paper, I finally wrote, “I do not expect to become a published writer from this class. I just want this to be a place where I can write freely.”

Although the purpose of the class never changed for me, on the third “submission day,” – our time to submit writing to upcoming contests and literary magazines – I faced a predicament. For the first two submission days, I had passed the time editing earlier pieces, eventually (pretty quickly) resorting to screen snake when hopelessness made the words look like hieroglyphics. I must not have been as subtle as I thought, as on the third of these days, Ms. Jenkins approached me. After shifting from excuse to excuse as to why I did not submit my writing, I finally recognized the real reason I had withheld my work: I was scared. I did not want to be different, and I did not want to challenge not only others’ perceptions of me, but also my own. I yielded to Ms. Jenkin’s pleas and sent one of my pieces to an upcoming contest.

By the time the letter came, I had already forgotten about the contest. When the flimsy white envelope arrived in the mail, I was shocked and ecstatic to learn that I had received 2nd place in a nationwide writing competition. The next morning, however, I discovered Ms. Jenkins would make an announcement to the whole school exposing me as a poet. I decided to own this identity and embrace my friends’ jokes and playful digs, and over time, they have learned to accept and respect this part of me. I have since seen more boys at my school identifying themselves as writers or artists.

I no longer see myself as an athlete and a poet independently, but rather I see these two aspects forming a single inseparable identity – me. Despite their apparent differences, these two disciplines are quite similar, as each requires creativity and devotion. I am still a poet when I am lacing up my cleats for soccer practice and still an athlete when I am building metaphors in the back of my mind – and I have realized ice cream and gummy bears taste pretty good together.

The timeline of this essay spans from the writer’s childhood all the way to sophomore year, but we only see key moments along this journey. First, we get context for why the writer thought he had to choose one identity: his older brothers had very distinct interests. Then, we learn about the student’s 10th grade creative writing class, writing contest, and results of the contest. Finally, the essay covers the writers’ embarrassment of his identity as a poet, to gradual acceptance and pride in that identity. 

This essay is a great example of a narrative told over an extended period of time. It’s highly personal and reflective, as the piece shares the writer’s conflicting feelings, and takes care to get to the root of those feelings. Furthermore, the overarching story is that of a personal transformation and development, so it’s well-suited to this essay structure.

3. Series of anecdotes, or montage

This essay structure allows you to focus on the most important experiences of a single storyline, or it lets you feature multiple (not necessarily related) stories that highlight your personality. Montage is a structure where you piece together separate scenes to form a whole story. This technique is most commonly associated with film. Just envision your favorite movie—it likely is a montage of various scenes that may not even be chronological. 

Night had robbed the academy of its daytime colors, yet there was comfort in the dim lights that cast shadows of our advances against the bare studio walls. Silhouettes of roundhouse kicks, spin crescent kicks, uppercuts and the occasional butterfly kick danced while we sparred. She approached me, eyes narrowed with the trace of a smirk challenging me. “Ready spar!” Her arm began an upward trajectory targeting my shoulder, a common first move. I sidestepped — only to almost collide with another flying fist. Pivoting my right foot, I snapped my left leg, aiming my heel at her midsection. The center judge raised one finger. 

There was no time to celebrate, not in the traditional sense at least. Master Pollard gave a brief command greeted with a unanimous “Yes, sir” and the thud of 20 hands dropping-down-and-giving-him-30, while the “winners” celebrated their victory with laps as usual. 

Three years ago, seven-thirty in the evening meant I was a warrior. It meant standing up straighter, pushing a little harder, “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am”, celebrating birthdays by breaking boards, never pointing your toes, and familiarity. Three years later, seven-thirty in the morning meant I was nervous. 

The room is uncomfortably large. The sprung floor soaks up the checkerboard of sunlight piercing through the colonial windows. The mirrored walls further illuminate the studio and I feel the light scrutinizing my sorry attempts at a pas de bourrée , while capturing the organic fluidity of the dancers around me. “ Chassé en croix, grand battement, pique, pirouette.” I follow the graceful limbs of the woman in front of me, her legs floating ribbons, as she executes what seems to be a perfect ronds de jambes. Each movement remains a negotiation. With admirable patience, Ms. Tan casts me a sympathetic glance.   

There is no time to wallow in the misery that is my right foot. Taekwondo calls for dorsiflexion; pointed toes are synonymous with broken toes. My thoughts drag me into a flashback of the usual response to this painful mistake: “You might as well grab a tutu and head to the ballet studio next door.” Well, here I am Master Pollard, unfortunately still following your orders to never point my toes, but no longer feeling the satisfaction that comes with being a third degree black belt with 5 years of experience quite literally under her belt. It’s like being a white belt again — just in a leotard and ballet slippers. 

But the appetite for new beginnings that brought me here doesn’t falter. It is only reinforced by the classical rendition of “Dancing Queen” that floods the room and the ghost of familiarity that reassures me that this new beginning does not and will not erase the past. After years spent at the top, it’s hard to start over. But surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become. In Taekwondo, we started each class reciting the tenets: honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet. 

The thing about change is that it eventually stops making things so different. After nine different schools, four different countries, three different continents, fluency in Tamil, Norwegian, and English, there are more blurred lines than there are clear fragments. My life has not been a tactfully executed, gold medal-worthy Taekwondo form with each movement defined, nor has it been a series of frappés performed by a prima ballerina with each extension identical and precise, but thankfully it has been like the dynamics of a spinning back kick, fluid, and like my chances of landing a pirouette, unpredictable. 

This essay takes a few different anecdotes and weaves them into a coherent narrative about the writer’s penchant for novel experiences. We’re plunged into her universe, in the middle of her Taekwondo spar, three years before the present day. She then transitions into a scene in a ballet studio, present day. By switching from past tense to present tense, the writer clearly demarcates this shift in time. 

The parallel use of the spoken phrase “Point” in the essay ties these two experiences together. The writer also employs a flashback to Master Pollard’s remark about “grabbing a tutu” and her habit of dorsiflexing her toes, which further cements the connection between these anecdotes. 

While some of the descriptions are a little wordy, the piece is well-executed overall, and is a stellar example of the montage structure. The two anecdotes are seamlessly intertwined, and they both clearly illustrate the student’s determination, dedication, reflectiveness, and adaptability. The writer also concludes the essay with a larger reflection on her life, many moves, and multiple languages. 

Unconventional College Essay Structures

Unconventional essay structures are any that don’t fit into the categories above. These tend to be higher risk, as it’s easier to turn off the admissions officer, but they’re also higher reward if executed correctly. 

There are endless possibilities for unconventional structures, but most fall under one of two categories:

1. Playing with essay format

Instead of choosing a traditional narrative format, you might take a more creative route to showcase your interests, writing your essay:

• As a movie script
• With a creative visual format (such as creating a visual pattern with the spaces between your sentences forming a picture)
• As a two-sided Lincoln-Douglas debate
• As a legal brief
• Using song lyrics

2. Linguistic techniques

You could also play with the actual language and sentence structure of your essay, writing it:

• In iambic pentameter
• Partially in your mother tongue
• In code or a programming language

These linguistic techniques are often hybrid, where you write some of the essay with the linguistic variation, then write more of an explanation in English.

Under no circumstances should you feel pressured to use an unconventional structure. Trying to force something unconventional will only hurt your chances. That being said, if a creative structure comes naturally to you, suits your personality, and works with the content of your essay — go for that structure!

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MLA Format: The Ultimate Guide to Correctly Formatting Your Paper

By Hannah Yang

So you need to create an MLA heading? You’re not alone—MLA format is one of the most common styles you’ll be expected to use when you’re writing a humanities paper, whether you’re a high-school student or a PhD candidate.

Read on to learn what a correct MLA heading looks like and how to create one that works like magic.

What Is an MLA Heading?

How do you format an mla heading, what is an mla header, how do you format an mla header, headings are only the beginning, commonly asked questions about mla headers, final thoughts.

The term “MLA heading” refers to five lines of important information that appear at the top of the first page.

Here are two examples of what an MLA heading could look like:

Hermione Granger

Professor McGonagall

Transfiguration—6th period

18 October 1991

“How to Turn A Matchstick into a Needle”

Harry J. Potter

Prof. Remus Lupin

Defense Against the Dark Arts

4 March 1994

“Why I Think My Professor Is a Werewolf”

Why are these headings important? Well, your teacher probably collects hundreds of papers every year. If any identifying information is missing from these assignments, grading and organizing them becomes much more of a challenge.

MLA headings ensure that all key information is presented upfront. With just a glance at the first page, your teacher can easily figure out who wrote this paper, when it was submitted, and which class it was written for.

What Are the Parts of an MLA Heading?

An MLA heading should include:

• Your instructor’s name
• The name of the class
• The date the assignment is due
• The title of your paper

Your instructor may give you specific guidelines about how much detail to include in each line. For example, some teachers may ask you to refer to them by their titles, while others may ask you to use their full names. If you haven’t been given any specific instructions, don’t sweat it—any option is fine as long as it’s clear and consistent.

Follow these formatting rules for your MLA heading:

• Start each piece of information on a separate line
• Don’t use any periods, commas, or other punctuation at the end of the line
• Keep the heading double-spaced, in the same font as the rest of your paper
• Left-align the first four lines (they should start at the 1-inch margin on the left side of your paper)
• Center the title (it should appear in the middle of your paper)
• Make sure your title is in title case

Title case means that major words should be capitalized and minor words should be lowercase. Major words include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and any word longer than four letters. Minor words include conjunctions, prepositions, and articles.

Tip: Remember that Hermione’s “Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare” shortens to S.P.E.W., not S.F.T.P.O.E.W—only the major words are capitalized!

The MLA heading should only appear on the first page of your paper . But wait, you’re not done yet! In the rest of your paper, you need to include something called an MLA header at the top right corner of every page.

Think of the MLA header as a short, simple “You are here” marker that shows the reader where they are in the paper. By looking at the MLA headers, your instructor can easily understand where each page goes and which paper it belongs to.

What Are the Parts of an MLA Header?

The MLA header consists of your last name and page number.

For example, the second page of Hermione Granger’s essays would be labeled “Granger 2”, the third would be labeled “Granger 3”, and so on.

Creating MLA Headers in Microsoft Word

If you’re writing your paper in Microsoft Word, follow these steps:

• Click Insert
• Scroll down to Page Numbers and click on it
• Set the position to “Top of Page (Header)”
• Set the alignment to “Right”
• Make sure there’s no checkmark in the box for “Show number on first page”
• Click on the page number and type your last name before the number
• Set your font and font size to match the rest of your paper, if they don’t already

Creating MLA Headers in Google Docs

If you’re writing your paper in Google Docs, follow these steps:

• Scroll down to Page Numbers and hover over it
• Choose the option that sets your page number in the upper right corner
• Set your font and type size to match the rest of your paper, if they don’t already

Tip: After you create your first MLA header, save a template document for yourself that you can re-use next time, so you don’t have to follow these steps every time you write a paper!

Once you've got your headings sorted, it's time to start writing your paper. While we can't help you edit the content of your essay , ProWritingAid is here to make sure your grammar, spelling, and style is on point.

As well as checking your grammar, ProWritingAid also shows you your progress towards key goals like varied sentence structure, active voice, readability, and more. The target scores are all based on averages for real essays, so you'll always know if you're on track.

Ready to start receiving feedback before you submit your work?

Whose last name should you use in your MLA header if you’re writing a group paper? The MLA Style Guide has no specific guidelines for group projects. You should always include the names of all members of the group project in the first line of your heading, but you don’t necessarily need to do this for the header on every page. If there are only two or three authors collaborating on your paper, you can include all of your last names in the MLA header, e.g., “Granger, Potter, and Weasley 2.” If you’re part of a bigger group and it would take up too much space to include all of your last names, you can write the name that comes first in the alphabet and then add “ et al. ”, e.g., “Granger et al. 2.” (The term “et al.” is short for the Latin term “et alia”, which means “and others.” You’ll often see it used in academic papers with multiple authors.) Should you include your class period in your MLA heading or just the class name? There’s no MLA rule about this, but when in doubt, it’s always better to err on the side of including too much information in your heading rather than not enough. If your instructor teaches more than one version of the same course, they’ll probably find it helpful if you specify the class period you’re in. You can either include your class period after the class name, e.g., “History of Magic—2nd period”, or before the class name, e.g., “2nd Period History of Magic.” What should you write in your MLA heading if you don’t have an instructor? If you have no instructor, you can explain the situation in the line where you would normally put the instructor’s name, e.g., “Independent Study” or “No Instructor.” What should you write in your MLA heading if you have multiple instructors? If you have multiple instructors, you can include both of their names in the line where you would put the instructor’s name. If you’re in a college course where you have a professor and a TA, you should choose whose name to include in the header depending on who will ultimately be reading your paper. Should you include the date you started writing the paper or the date the paper is due? The MLA Style Guide has no specific guidelines about which date you need to put in the heading. In general, however, the best practice is to put the date the assignment is due. This is because all the papers for the same assignment will have the same due date, even if different students begin writing their assignments on different days, so it’s easier for your instructor to use the due date to determine what assignment the paper is for. Should you format the date as Day Month Year or Month Day Year? In MLA format, you should write the date in the order of Day Month Year. Instead of writing May 31 2021, for example, you would write 31 May 2021. What font should you use for your MLA heading and header? Both the heading and the header should be in the same font as the rest of your paper. If you haven’t chosen a font for your paper yet, remember that the key thing to aim for is readability. If you choose a font where your teachers have to squint to read it, or one where your teachers can’t figure out the difference between what’s italicized and what isn’t, you should rethink your choice. When in doubt, go with Times New Roman, 12 pt. It’s always a safe bet for MLA papers unless your instructor specifically tells you otherwise. Do you need to italicize or bold the title of your MLA paper? No. There’s no need to use any special styling on the title of an MLA paper, such as bold or italics. How do you format section titles in your MLA paper? If you’re writing a paper with multiple sections, you may need to include a subtitle at the top of each section. The MLA Style Guide gives you two options for using subtitles in a paper: one-level section titles or several-level subtitles (for papers with subsections within each section). For one-level section titles, the formatting is simple. Every subtitle should look the same as the title (centered and double-spaced, with no special formatting). The only difference is that instead of using title case, you should capitalize only the first word of each subtitle. For example, a title would be spelled “How to Turn a Matchstick into a Needle”, while a subtitle would be spelled “How to turn a matchstick into a needle.” For several-level subtitles, you will need to format each level in a different way to show which level each section is at. You can use boldface, italics, and underlining to differentiate between levels. For example, subtitles at the highest level should be bolded, while subtitles at the next level down should be italicized. See the chart below for MLA’s suggested formats. What is the difference between MLA format and APA format? MLA and APA are two sets of guidelines for formatting papers and citing research. MLA stands for the Modern Language Association. The MLA handbook is most often used in fields related to the humanities, such as literature, history, and philosophy. APA stands for the American Psychological Association. The APA format is most often used in fields related to the social sciences, such as psychology, sociology, and nursing. The APA manual includes a heading format similar to the MLA heading format with a few key differences, such as using a separate cover page instead of simply including the heading at the top of the first page. Both heading formats ensure that all of your papers include all your key identifying information in a clear and consistent way. Where can you learn more about MLA style? If you have questions about how to format a specific assignment or paper, it’s always best to consult your instructor first. Your school may also have a writing center that can help you with formatting questions. In addition, Purdue has fantastic resources for all kinds of formatting topics, from MLA headings to MLA citations and everything in between. If you would like to find out more directly from the Modern Language Association, consult the MLA Style Center or the MLA Handbook (8th edition). Now you’re ready to write an MLA paper with a fantastic heading. Make sure your essay does your heading justice by checking it over with ProWritingAid. Write Better Essays Every Time Are your teachers always pulling you up on the same errors? Maybe you're losing clarity by writing overly long sentences or using the passive voice too much? ProWritingAid helps you catch these issues in your essay before you submit it. Be confident about grammar Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send. Hannah Yang Hannah Yang is a speculative fiction writer who writes about all things strange and surreal. Her work has appeared in Analog Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, The Dark, and elsewhere, and two of her stories have been finalists for the Locus Award. Her favorite hobbies include watercolor painting, playing guitar, and rock climbing. You can follow her work on hannahyang.com, or subscribe to her newsletter for publication updates. Get started with ProWritingAid It's A Steal Bring your story to life for less. Get 25% off yearly plans in our Storyteller's Sale. Grab the discount while it lasts. Drop us a line or let's stay in touch via: Calculate for all schools Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, proper college essay heading format. Could someone please give me a quick rundown on the correct format for a college essay heading? I don't want to mess up the presentation of my essay. Thanks in advance! Certainly! The proper heading format for a college essay is pretty straightforward. Here's a quick guide to help you out: 1. Align your text to the left. Most college essays use a standard left-aligned format, as it's easy to read and universally accepted. 2. Use a legible, 12-point font. Times New Roman, Arial, and Calibri are some common, easy-to-read options. Stick to a single font style throughout the entire essay. 3. Leave 1-inch margins on all sides. This standard margin size ensures a clean and professional look. 4. Double-space the entire essay, including between paragraphs. This makes your essay easier to read and is often required for college submission guidelines. 5. Include your name, the date, and a title (if your college requires one) in the header of the first page. Place them in the upper left-hand corner. Here's an example format: Essay Title 6. Use page numbers, if necessary. If your essay is more than a few pages, consider adding page numbers in the top right-hand corner of each page. 7. Leave a few lines before starting your essay. This creates a clean division between your header and the essay content. 8. Avoid fancy or colorful formatting. Keep it simple, as colleges are looking for content and strong writing rather than creative design elements. Remember, always double-check the specific formatting requirements for each college you're applying to and adjust your essay formatting accordingly. Good luck with your essay! About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field. Essay Editor College Assignment Heading: A Simple Guide for Formatting Crafting an effective college assignment heading is key to making a strong first impression on professors. The title serves as the face of your paper and reflects your focus on precision and adherence to academic standards. Curious about how to create a proper title? This guide provides clear instructions on creating an impressive college paper heading, guiding you to comprehend what a header in writing is, and the appropriate way to format it. By applying these tips and guidelines, be confident your prep aligns with the required scholarly standards.  Basic Rules for an Assignment Header A well-organized college assignment heading is crucial for clearly identifying your assignment and presenting it professionally. Adhering to the basic rules will help you craft a carefully designed title:  Include Crucial Information: A typical heading generally features the student and teacher’s name and surname, the due date, and the current course name. Clearly display and align the project’s title to the document’s left margin.   Use the Correct Font and Size: Standard academic papers require a legible font like Times New Roman or sometimes Arial and 12-point size. Avoid choosing decorative fonts that may undermine the professional quality of your composition.   Follow Proper Spacing Guidelines: Your prep’s heading needs to be double-spaced, and coherent with the remainder of the writing. This maintains uniformity and readability within the document.   Add Page Numbers (if indicated): Some teachers might ask for page numbers to be positioned in the header section. So, format them as per the given instructions.  A well-crafted essay title guarantees your assignment recognition for clarity and compliance with academic standards, paving the way for successful submission. How to Head an Assignment? Understanding what is a heading in an essay and grasping how to head a paper correctly are foundational skills in scholarly writing. A proper essay header normally contains the instructor’s and student’s details, the course code or title, the current date, and the prep’s title. Most colleges follow APA, MLA, or Chicago-style guidelines, so familiarize yourself with these standards. Your header needs to be aligned correctly and placed where it doesn’t interfere with your work’s content. Adhering to these guidelines ensures your college paper heading is both succinct and polished. Formatting Rules for a Heading Following these guidelines guarantees your heading format meets academic expectations:  Ensure Consistent Alignment: Align all components of your header close to the left margin, maintaining uniformity in the paper.   Use Double-Spacing: Keep double-spacing between the lines of your prep’s heading.   Avoid Unnecessary Information: Keep the college heading concise, avoiding any extra text or embellishments.   Capitalization and Punctuation: Properly capitalize and punctuate your essay heading consistent with style guidelines, ensuring consistency across the prep.   Consistency: Use identical size, font, and style for all components in your header.  Adhering to these rules will give your composition a polished look. This simplifies it for the lecturer to move through your composition. Why Is a Good College Assignment Heading Important? A skillfully designed paper heading gives your assignment a sophisticated look and helps to clearly organize the essentials for your readers. It signals to your lecturer that you have carefully followed educational standards and put thought into every aspect of your project. In addition, a proper heading for an essay guarantees that all relevant data is easily accessible. That’s specifically useful in larger classes where preps are handled by multiple lecturers or TAs. By concentrating on a succinct and accurate essay heading, you set a strong foundation for the rest of your home tasks. Tips for Refining Your College Paper Heading Refining your college paper heading is vital to guarantee it meets academic criteria and effectively represents your paper. By carefully focusing on the particulars, you can elevate the expertise and coherence of your home assignment. See some practical tips to consider:  Review institutional guidelines: Always verify your institution's detailed formatting instructions or templates to ensure adherence.   Keep it simple: Steer clear of irrelevant information in your heading; a clean, straightforward format is best.   Maintain consistency: Make sure that the font, size, and alignment are uniform across your header.   Double-check accuracy: Verify that all components in your title, comprising your name and surname, course name, and submission date, are correct.   Align with your prep's style: Confirm the header complements the overall tone and style of your written work.  By applying these suggestions, you can develop an assignment title that fulfills academic standards and improves the overall appearance of your prep.  Recap A well-formatted college paper heading is a minor but vital part of academic composition. From understanding what a title is to mastering how to head a text, focusing on these details can make a notable difference in the overall presentation of your composition. Always stick to the fundamental formatting standards and each time confirm that you follow the heading format specified by your educational institution's guidelines. To further enhance your writing, consider utilizing our tools at AI Essay Detector and College Essay Generator to help you create outstanding essays with ease. Related articles Paraphrasing vs plagiarism: do they really differ. Academic assignments require much knowledge and skill. One of the most important points is rendering and interpreting material one has ever studied. A person should avoid presenting word-for-word plagiarism but express his or her thoughts and ideas as much as possible. However, every fine research is certain to be based on the previous issues, data given, or concepts suggested. 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Luckily, we now have tools to detect plagiarism. But what about PDF ... MLA Format Guide - 9th edition Essay Formatting How to Create a Header To add your header, either double-click in the top inch of the page or select the "Insert" tab in Microsoft Word, navigate to the "Header & Footer" section, select "Header," and click the first option titled "Blank." When editing your header, navigate to the "Design" tab and check the box beside "Different First Page" as every heading after your first page should only include the page number.  Still in the design tab under the "Header & Footer" section, select "Page Number." In the drop-down box, select the first option, labeled "Top of Page," then select the third option labeled "Plain Number 3." Add your last name in front of the page number, and change the font settings to match that of the rest of your paper. On the next line, set the text alignment to align your text to the left side of the page (under the "Paragraph" section of the "Home" tab) and on four different lines type your first and last name, your instructor's name, the course the assignment is for, and the date in the format DD Month YYYY. On the next line, center the text (under the "Paragraph" section of the "Home" tab) and type the title of your paper. An example of an MLA formatted header is included below. How to Create a Works Cited Page You can create your Works Cited page before, during, or after you write your essay. If you do not create it before, be sure to document the sources you used, including any website links, so you can go back and create your citations later. Citation format will be discussed in a later section, but this section will detail how to create a Works Cited Page. At the end of your essay, insert a page break (found under the "Insert" tab) and center the words "Works Cited" at the top of your page (not in the header). If there is only one source being cited, type "Work Cited". Insert your citations in alphabetical order in the subsequent lines. Make sure they are left aligned. If your citation is more than one line, apply the hanging indent feature to everything after the first line for each individual entry. You can do this by selecting the second line of the entry, navigating to the "Home" tab in Microsoft Word, selecting the arrow at the bottom right in the "Paragraph" section to open up the "Paragraph Settings" box, and under the "Indentation" section, select the drop-down box labeled "Special," and choose "Hanging". This will move everything but the first line of your citation slightly to the right. Other essay formatting notes When formatting your essay, there are a few things to keep in mind: Use the correct font as listed under the "Home" tab of this guide. Double-space your text, use 12 pt font, and use a legible font style, such as Times New Roman, Ariel, Calibri, etc., ensuring that the regular and italic font styles are distinct. After the first page, only include your last name and the page number in the top right corner of the header. Change the paragraph options to remove space before and after all paragraphs. Select the entire essay (you can use the Ctrl + A feature), and in the "Paragraph" section of the "Home" tab, select the drop-down arrow where you can adjust the line spacing and make sure both selections at the bottom of the drop-down box read "Add Space Before Paragraph" and "Add Space After Paragraph". If they say "Remove Space Before Paragraph" and/or "Remove Space After Paragraph," click to remove the space. On the last page, include a Works Cited page with your citations listed in alphabetical order. Last Updated: Jun 12, 2024 7:50 AM URL: https://uaccm.libguides.com/what_is_MLA_style Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts MLA General Format  Welcome to the Purdue OWL This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice. Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use. MLA Style specifies guidelines for formatting manuscripts and citing research in writing. MLA Style also provides writers with a system for referencing their sources through parenthetical citation in their essays and Works Cited pages.  Writers who properly use MLA also build their credibility by demonstrating accountability to their source material. Most importantly, the use of MLA style can protect writers from accusations of plagiarism, which is the purposeful or accidental uncredited use of source material produced by other writers.  If you are asked to use MLA format, be sure to consult the  MLA Handbook  (9th edition). Publishing scholars and graduate students should also consult the  MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing  (3rd edition). The  MLA Handbook  is available in most writing centers and reference libraries. It is also widely available in bookstores, libraries, and at the MLA web site. See the Additional Resources section of this page for a list of helpful books and sites about using MLA Style. Paper Format The preparation of papers and manuscripts in MLA Style is covered in part four of the  MLA Style Manual . Below are some basic guidelines for formatting a paper in  MLA Style : General Guidelines Type your paper on a computer and print it out on standard, white 8.5 x 11-inch paper. Double-space the text of your paper and use a legible font (e.g. Times New Roman). Whatever font you choose, MLA recommends that the regular and italics type styles contrast enough that they are each distinct from one another. The font size should be 12 pt. Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks (unless otherwise prompted by your instructor). Set the margins of your document to 1 inch on all sides. Indent the first line of each paragraph one half-inch from the left margin. MLA recommends that you use the “Tab” key as opposed to pushing the space bar five times. Create a header that numbers all pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner, one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. (Note: Your instructor may ask that you omit the number on your first page. Always follow your instructor's guidelines.) Use italics throughout your essay to indicate the titles of longer works and, only when absolutely necessary, provide emphasis. If you have any endnotes, include them on a separate page before your Works Cited page. Entitle the section Notes (centered, unformatted). Formatting the First Page of Your Paper Do not make a title page for your paper unless specifically requested or the paper is assigned as a group project. In the case of a group project, list all names of the contributors, giving each name its own line in the header, followed by the remaining MLA header requirements as described below. Format the remainder of the page as requested by the instructor. In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date. Again, be sure to use double-spaced text. Double space again and center the title. Do not underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks. Write the title in Title Case (standard capitalization), not in all capital letters. Use quotation marks and/or italics when referring to other works in your title, just as you would in your text. For example:  Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas  as Morality Play; Human Weariness in "After Apple Picking" Double space between the title and the first line of the text. Create a header in the upper right-hand corner that includes your last name, followed by a space with a page number. Number all pages consecutively with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. (Note: Your instructor or other readers may ask that you omit the last name/page number header on your first page. Always follow instructor guidelines.) Here is a sample of the first page of a paper in MLA style: The First Page of an MLA Paper Section Headings Writers sometimes use section headings to improve a document’s readability. These sections may include individual chapters or other named parts of a book or essay. MLA recommends that when dividing an essay into sections you number those sections with an Arabic number and a period followed by a space and the section name. MLA does not have a prescribed system of headings for books (for more information on headings, please see page 146 in the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing , 3rd edition). If you are only using one level of headings, meaning that all of the sections are distinct and parallel and have no additional sections that fit within them, MLA recommends that these sections resemble one another grammatically. For instance, if your headings are typically short phrases, make all of the headings short phrases (and not, for example, full sentences). Otherwise, the formatting is up to you. It should, however, be consistent throughout the document. If you employ multiple levels of headings (some of your sections have sections within sections), you may want to provide a key of your chosen level headings and their formatting to your instructor or editor. Sample Section Headings The following sample headings are meant to be used only as a reference. You may employ whatever system of formatting that works best for you so long as it remains consistent throughout the document. Formatted, unnumbered: Level 1 Heading: bold, flush left Level 2 Heading: italics, flush left Level 3 Heading: centered, bold Level 4 Heading: centered, italics Level 5 Heading: underlined, flush left Mission and Vision Strategic Planning President’s Welcome Board of Trustees Executive Officers Ocean County Board of Commissioners Institutional Research Faculty & Staff Campus Life Ocean County College Manahawkin Visiting OCC Emergency Closing Policies and Procedures Campus Civility Partnering for the Future College History Consumer Information Events and Activities Human Resources School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) School of Arts and Humanities School of Business and Social Science School of Nursing Honors by Contract Search for Courses Registration Online Learning Global Education Experiences Enrichment Classes Employee Training and Workforce Teacher Training Continuing & Professional Education Academic Advising Student Planning Center for Student Success Testing Center Campus Security Computer Labs Enrollment and Degree Verification Creating Your Schedule Transcript Requests Returning Students New Students Student Government Performance Support Groups About Student Clubs and Activities Student Media Center for Access and Equity Counseling Center Office of Student Conduct Veteran & Military Resource Center (V.M.R.C.) Admissions Frequently Asked Questions Accepted Students Special Circumstance Review Bookstore Purchases Whom to Call for Help Eligibility Requirements Work Study Program Important Documents & Resources Apply For A Student Loan Withdrawals, Refunds, Return of Aid Types of Financial Aid How to Apply for Aid Academic School Scholarships Santander SOL Partnership Educational Opportunity 100 Women Campaign Requirements and Instructions Foundation Scholarships Senior Students International Students High School Students Refund Policy NJ Unemployment Educational Benefits Net Price Calculator Commit to Complete Grunin Center Planetarium Ocean TV-20 Facility Rentals Barnegat Bay Request Information Campus Safety Employment Opportunities Ways of Giving Student Services How to Format Essays HOW TO FORMAT ESSAYS Once your revisions are complete, it’s time to format your essay — or arrange the way it is presented. The first rule to writing in College Essay format is simple: ask your professor.  He or she may prefer a special format. If they say “Use MLA” or “Use APA,” follow the instructions below. MLA Format Essay Title page:  Usually no — check with professor Margins:  1 inch all around Font:  Usually Times Roman, 11 to 12 point Heading:  Yes — follow illustration below Page number:  Yes — upper left hand, with last name. Instructions on automatically setting up this information using Microsoft Word. First, second and Works Cited page of MLA formatted essay. MLA Format Page 1 See enlarged image (GIF) MLA Format Page 2 See enlarged image (GIF) MLA Format Work Cited See enlarged image (GIF) Title page:  Usually yes — check with professor Margins:  1 inch all around Font:  Usually Times Roman, 11 to 12 point Heading:  Yes — follow illustration below Page number:  Yes — upper left hand, with last name. Instructions on automatically setting up this information using Microsoft Word . First, second and Works Cited page of APA formatted essay. APA Format Page 1 See enlarged image (GIF) APA Format Page 2 See enlarged image (GIF) APA Format Page 3 See enlarged image (GIF) Have a language expert improve your writing Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free. Knowledge Base Academic writing How to write effective headings How to Write and Format Headings in Academic Writing Published on March 15, 2019 by Shane Bryson . Revised on July 23, 2023. The goal of using headings in a document is not only to divide information, but also to allow easy navigation of the document. In academic writing , headings help readers find the specific information they want while retaining a sense of how that information fits with everything else in the document. To test for overall heading clarity, ask yourself the following: from reading your headings in sequence, would an informed reader understand… The content of the document as a whole? The specific content of each section? How each section fits with the others? If not, your headings aren’t effective , and may need some improvement. Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes Table of contents Headings vs. titles, how long should headings be, using descriptive headings, technical terms in headings, capitalization, formatting and sequencing, other interesting articles. Although heading and titles are similar, they are distinct: A title leads the entire document and captures its content in one or two phrases; a heading leads only a chapter or section and captures only the content of that chapter or section. Read more in our article on writing good titles in academic writing . Don't submit your assignments before you do this The academic proofreading tool has been trained on 1000s of academic texts. Making it the most accurate and reliable proofreading tool for students. Free citation check included. Try for free Headings should be as long as it takes to clearly communicate the content of the sections they head. However, each heading should be as concise as possible – a good rule of thumb is to limit the heading length to one line. Higher-level vs. lower-level headings Higher-level headings often make do with a single word (e.g. “ Introduction ” or “ Methods ”), while lower-level headings are often longer. This is because higher-level headings cover more general content and provide an overview. One word is clear enough because everyone already knows what happens in an introduction chapter – nothing more needs to be said. Lower-level headings should use more specific terminology to help clarify the content of the section. These headings help readers find the exact information they’re looking for. The main goal of a heading is to inform the reader of what content they can find in that section, so make your headings as descriptive as possible. The examples below show one non-descriptive heading and three descriptive headings that provide the reader with much more information. Profile of GPS technology Function of GPS in aviation GPS before 1999 Avoiding repetitive headings No two sections should focus on the exact same content, so no two headings should be identical. Instead of closing a chapter with “Summary,” for example, try making the heading little more descriptive: “Summary of X .” Documents in fields that rely heavily on jargon and technical language will contain headings that might not be clear to every reader. That’s fine as long as you keep your reader’s knowledge level in mind. However, if you don’t need the jargon to give a specific idea of your content, then avoid it. Receive feedback on language, structure, and formatting Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on: Academic style Vague sentences Style consistency See an example At the outset, make a plan for how you will deal with matters of  capitalization , formatting and sequencing of headings. Headings at the same level should be formatted the same. For instance, “Section 2.2” should get the same treatment as “Section 4.1”. They should also have parallel structure . Often, your style guide or university will offer specific directions on how to approach the capitalization, formatting, and sequencing of headings, so it’s wise to check before you start writing them. For example,  APA headings and MLA headings  require specific formatting. Using automatic heading styles in Word To avoid having to format each heading separately, it’s smart to use the heading styles feature offered by Microsoft Word, Google Docs and many other word-processing softwares. An extra benefit of using these heading styles is that you can automatically generate and update a table of contents. This will save you a lot of time later on. Read more about this in our article on creating a  table of contents . If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools! Ad hominem fallacy Post hoc fallacy Appeal to authority fallacy False cause fallacy Sunk cost fallacy Deep learning Generative AI Machine learning Reinforcement learning Supervised vs. unsupervised learning  (AI) Tools Grammar Checker Paraphrasing Tool Text Summarizer AI Detector Plagiarism Checker Citation Generator Cite this Scribbr article If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator. Bryson, S. (2023, July 23). How to Write and Format Headings in Academic Writing. Scribbr. Retrieved September 3, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-writing/effective-headings/ Is this article helpful? Shane Bryson Shane finished his master's degree in English literature in 2013 and has been working as a writing tutor and editor since 2009. He began proofreading and editing essays with Scribbr in early summer, 2014. Other students also liked Capitalization in titles and headings, apa headings and subheadings, forging good titles in academic writing, get unlimited documents corrected. ✔ Free APA citation check included ✔ Unlimited document corrections ✔ Specialized in correcting academic texts Online Students For All Online Programs International Students On Campus, need or have Visa Campus Students For All Campus Programs What a Thesis Paper is and How to Write One From choosing a topic and conducting research to crafting a strong argument, writing a thesis paper can be a rewarding experience. It can also be a challenging experience. If you've never written a thesis paper before, you may not know where to start. You may not even be sure exactly what a thesis paper is. But don't worry; the right support and resources can help you navigate this writing process. What is a Thesis Paper? A thesis paper is a type of academic essay that you might write as a graduation requirement for certain bachelor's, master's or honors programs. Thesis papers present your own original research or analysis on a specific topic related to your field. “In some ways, a thesis paper can look a lot like a novella,” said Shana Chartier , director of information literacy at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). “It’s too short to be a full-length novel, but with the standard size of 40-60 pages (for a bachelor’s) and 60-100 pages (for a master’s), it is a robust exploration of a topic, explaining one’s understanding of a topic based on personal research.” Chartier has worked in academia for over 13 years and at SNHU for nearly eight. In her role as an instructor and director, Chartier has helped to guide students through the writing process, like editing and providing resources. Chartier has written and published academic papers such as "Augmented Reality Gamifies the Library: A Ride Through the Technological Frontier" and "Going Beyond the One-Shot: Spiraling Information Literacy Across Four Years." Both of these academic papers required Chartier to have hands-on experience with the subject matter. Like a thesis paper, they also involved hypothesizing and doing original research to come to a conclusion. “When writing a thesis paper, the importance of staying organized cannot be overstated,” said Chartier. “Mapping out each step of the way, making firm and soft deadlines... and having other pairs of eyes on your work to ensure academic accuracy and clean editing are crucial to writing a successful paper.” How Do I Choose a Topic For My Thesis Paper? What your thesis paper is for will determine some of the specific requirements and steps you might take, but the first step is usually the same: Choosing a topic. “Choosing a topic can be daunting," said Rochelle Attari , a peer tutor at SNHU. "But if (you) stick with a subject (you're) interested in... choosing a topic is much more manageable.” Similar to a thesis, Attari recently finished the capstone  for her bachelor’s in psychology . Her bachelor’s concentration is in forensics, and her capstone focused on the topic of using a combined therapy model for inmates who experience substance abuse issues to reduce recidivism. “The hardest part was deciding what I wanted to focus on,” Attari said. “But once I nailed down my topic, each milestone was more straightforward.” In her own writing experience, Attari said brainstorming was an important step when choosing her topic. She recommends writing down different ideas on a piece of paper and doing some preliminary research on what’s already been written on your topic. By doing this exercise, you can narrow or broaden your ideas until you’ve found a topic you’re excited about. " Brainstorming is essential when writing a paper and is not a last-minute activity,” Attari said. How Do I Structure My Thesis Paper? Thesis papers tend to have a standard format with common sections as the building blocks. While the structure Attari describes below will work for many theses, it’s important to double-check with your program to see if there are any specific requirements. Writing a thesis for a Master of Fine Arts, for example, might actually look more like a fiction novel. According to Attari, a thesis paper is often structured with the following major sections: Introduction Literature review Methods, results Now, let’s take a closer look at what each different section should include. Your introduction is your opportunity to present the topic of your thesis paper. In this section, you can explain why that topic is important. The introduction is also the place to include your thesis statement, which shows your stance in the paper. Attari said that writing an introduction can be tricky, especially when you're trying to capture your reader’s attention and state your argument. “I have found that starting with a statement of truth about a topic that pertains to an issue I am writing about typically does the trick,” Attari said. She demonstrated this advice in an example introduction she wrote for a paper on the effects of daylight in Alaska: In the continental United States, we can always count on the sun rising and setting around the same time each day, but in Alaska, during certain times of the year, the sun rises and does not set for weeks. Research has shown that the sun provides vitamin D and is an essential part of our health, but little is known about how daylight twenty-four hours a day affects the circadian rhythm and sleep. In the example Attari wrote, she introduces the topic and informs the reader what the paper will cover. Somewhere in her intro, she said she would also include her thesis statement, which might be: Twenty-four hours of daylight over an extended period does not affect sleep patterns in humans and is not the cause of daytime fatigue in northern Alaska . Literature Review In the literature review, you'll look at what information is already out there about your topic. “This is where scholarly articles  about your topic are essential,” said Attari. “These articles will help you find the gap in research that you have identified and will also support your thesis statement." Telling your reader what research has already been done will help them see how your research fits into the larger conversation. Most university libraries offer databases of scholarly/peer-reviewed articles that can be helpful in your search. In the methods section of your thesis paper, you get to explain how you learned what you learned. This might include what experiment you conducted as a part of your independent research. “For instance,” Attari said, “if you are a psychology major and have identified a gap in research on which therapies are effective for anxiety, your methods section would consist of the number of participants, the type of experiment and any other particulars you would use for that experiment.” In this section, you'll explain the results of your study. For example, building on the psychology example Attari outlined, you might share self-reported anxiety levels for participants trying different kinds of therapies. To help you communicate your results clearly, you might include data, charts, tables or other visualizations. The discussion section of your thesis paper is where you will analyze and interpret the results you presented in the previous section. This is where you can discuss what your findings really mean or compare them to the research you found in your literature review. The discussion section is your chance to show why the data you collected matters and how it fits into bigger conversations in your field. The conclusion of your thesis paper is your opportunity to sum up your argument and leave your reader thinking about why your research matters. Attari breaks the conclusion down into simple parts. “You restate the original issue and thesis statement, explain the experiment's results and discuss possible next steps for further research,” she said. Find Your Program Resources to help write your thesis paper. While your thesis paper may be based on your independent research, writing it doesn’t have to be a solitary process. Asking for help and using the resources that are available to you can make the process easier. If you're writing a thesis paper, some resources Chartier encourages you to use are: Citation Handbooks: An online citation guide or handbook can help you ensure your citations are correct. APA , MLA and Chicago styles have all published their own guides. Citation Generators: There are many citation generator tools that help you to create citations. Some — like RefWorks — even let you directly import citations from library databases as you research. Your Library's Website: Many academic and public libraries allow patrons to access resources like databases or FAQs. Some FAQs at the SNHU library that might be helpful in your thesis writing process include “ How do I read a scholarly article? ” or “ What is a research question and how do I develop one? ” It can also be helpful to check out what coaching or tutoring options are available through your school. At SNHU, for example, the Academic Support Center offers writing and grammar workshops , and students can access 24/7 tutoring and 1:1 sessions with peer tutors, like Attari. "Students can even submit their papers and receive written feedback... like revisions and editing suggestions," she said. If you are writing a thesis paper, there are many resources available to you. It's a long paper, but with the right mindset and support, you can successfully navigate the process. “Pace yourself,” said Chartier. “This is a marathon, not a sprint. Setting smaller goals to get to the big finish line can make the process seem less daunting, and remember to be proud of yourself and celebrate your accomplishment once you’re done. Writing a thesis is no small task, and it’s important work for the scholarly community.” A degree can change your life. Choose your program  from 200+ SNHU degrees that can take you where you want to go. Meg Palmer ’18 is a writer and scholar by trade who loves reading, riding her bike and singing in a barbershop quartet. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English, language and literature at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) and her master’s degree in writing, rhetoric and discourse at DePaul University (’20). While attending SNHU, she served as the editor-in-chief of the campus student newspaper, The Penmen Press, where she deepened her passion for writing. Meg is an adjunct professor at Johnson and Wales University, where she teaches first year writing, honors composition, and public speaking. Connect with her on LinkedIn . Explore more content like this article What is the Difference Between Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees? Academic Referencing: How to Cite a Research Paper What is Considered Plagiarism And How to Avoid It About southern new hampshire university. SNHU is a nonprofit, accredited university with a mission to make high-quality education more accessible and affordable for everyone. Founded in 1932, and online since 1995, we’ve helped countless students reach their goals with flexible, career-focused programs . Our 300-acre campus in Manchester, NH is home to over 3,000 students, and we serve over 135,000 students online. Visit our about SNHU  page to learn more about our mission, accreditations, leadership team, national recognitions and awards. Rachel Kushner’s Surprising Swerve She and her narrators have always relied on swagger—but not this time. “Sometimes I am boggled by the gallery of souls I’ve known. By the lore. The wild history, unsung,” Rachel Kushner writes in The Hard Crowd , her 2021 essay collection. “People crowd in and talk to me in dreams. People who died or disappeared or whose connection to my own life makes no logical sense, but exists as strong as ever, in a past that seeps and stains instead of fades.” As a girl in San Francisco’s Sunset District, Kushner ran with a group whom she has described as “ratty delinquents”—kids who fought, who set fires, who got high too young and too often, who in some cases wound up incarcerated or addicted or dead. At 16, she headed to UC Berkeley for college, but returned to the city after graduating, working at bars and immersing herself in the motorcycle scene . Almost immersing herself, anyway. Even when she was a 14-year-old sampling strangers’ drugs at rock concerts, some piece of Kushner was an observer as well as a participant, a student of unsung histories . Explore the October 2024 Issue Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read. In her fiction, Kushner gravitates toward main characters who occupy that same split psychological place . All of her novels—her latest, Creation Lake , is her fourth—feature a young woman, usually a narrator, who shares her way of viewing the world . Kushner often loans her protagonists her own biker swagger, the hard layer of confidence that helps a woman survive in a very male environment. Preferring to write in the first person, she also gives her central characters her distinctive style: Kushner is alternately warm and caustic , funny and slippery, able to swing from high-literary registers to street slang and back in an instant. Her recurring theme has been the limits that even groups of outsiders impose on women, and yet her female characters, no matter how constrained they find themselves, are roving, curious thinkers , using their keen powers of observation to escape subjugation and victimhood—in their minds, if not in their circumstances. With every book, Kushner has grown more interested in the push-pull between material restriction and psychic freedom. She’s especially intrigued by the effect that gender roles have on her characters’ strategies for navigating that tension. In each of her novels, a woman tries to both resist and exploit conventional ideas about female behavior. One of the main characters in Telex From Cuba , her 2008 debut, is a burlesque dancer named Rachel K (her name is taken from a real historical figure, though of course Kushner is winking in the mirror), whose very literal performance of femininity attracts some of the most powerful men in prerevolutionary Cuba . Her evident goal is to use these men to her own ends, but she winds up getting conscripted into their service instead. Such failures of self-liberation continue through Kushner’s next novel, 2013’s The Flamethrowers , which was a breakout for her. Its protagonist, Reno, is a biker and an emerging artist who covets the independence and aura of influence that seem to come so easily to the men in both the art world and the 1970s Italian radical underground , of which she briefly becomes a part. Unlike Rachel K, Reno’s not a seductress. She’s not interested in seducing the reader, either. What Reno offers in place of charm is commentary so wryly smart and dispassionate that, especially in contrast with the male blowhards she repeatedly encounters, she seems powerful. But over the course of the novel, Kushner builds a skidding sense of perilousness, a feeling that no one, Reno included, is in charge or exempt from the mounting chaos. In the end, as Reno and the reader may have sensed all along, her detachment is just another performance , a cool-girl put-on not so different from Rachel K’s burlesque. Read: Great sex in the time of war The irony that the aloof-observer stance turns into yet another trap is not lost on either Kushner or her narrators. Romy, the protagonist of The Mars Room (2018), takes especially bleak stock of her plight, and for good reason. She’s serving two life sentences after killing a stalker who latched on to her at the Market Street strip club where she worked and began menacing her and her child in their private life. For Romy, her flat narration (counterposed with excerpts from the Unabomber’s diary and chapters voiced by a sex-obsessed crooked cop) is a way of walling herself off, creating the mental freedom to imagine escape. Whether flight is a real act of hope, though, remains deliberately ambiguous. It may be an attempt at suicide. Again and again, Kushner scrambles conventional ideas about gender, skewering male bravado while also subverting familiar ideas of femininity. Who and what counts as weak, she wants to know, and why? Stubborn stereotype portrays women as prey to emotion, unable to rein themselves in, yet in book after book, her protagonists’ relentless restraint has stood in stark contrast to the egotistical, violent impulsiveness of the men around them . In Creation Lake , Kushner complicates this dynamic. Her protagonist, Sadie Smith, is another dispassionate observer, but one who appears to have far more independence and agency than her predecessors. She’s a lone wolf, a private intelligence agent who has shucked off her home, her past, and even her name: “Sadie Smith” is an alias. At the novel’s start, she’s en route to the Guyenne, a rural region in southwestern France, where she’s been hired to spy on Pascal Balmy, the leader of Le Moulin, a group of environmental radicals intent on sabotaging Big Agriculture. She has no idea who’s paying her or what their larger agenda might be, and yet she’s convinced that she’s playing her assigned part to perfection. Indeed, she has such faith in her toughness, acuity, and ability to dupe men that she considers herself all but invincible. Her vigilant predecessors Romy and Reno were much warier and wiser than Sadie, who loves bragging that any innocence she displays is just a pose. Read: A grim view of marriage—and an exhortation to leave it Creation Lake is not a conventional spy novel, but, unlike Kushner’s shaggy earlier books, it often feels as tight as a thriller. Sadie’s “secret bosses” have sent her to the Guyenne not just to embed herself in Pascal’s group, but to undermine it. Gradually, readers understand that her assignment has a deadlier side—a realization that Sadie either suppresses or notices less quickly than she should, perhaps the most glaring giveaway that she’s not quite the clever spy she thinks. She’s sloppy, distractible, as drunk on her perception of her own power as any engine-revving “king of the road,” to use her derisive phrase for the swellheaded bikers among whom she first went undercover. Sadie is also more impressionable—and less happy—than she’s ready to admit, which generates psychological ferment beneath the surface espionage plot. Creation Lake gets some of its suspense from its action, but Kushner mainly builds tension inside her narrator’s head. Sadie spends much of the novel reading Pascal’s correspondence with Bruno Lacombe, an aging philosopher whose opposition to modern civilization inspired Le Moulin at its founding. Living in a cave now, he reveres the collaborative and artistic Neanderthals, “who huddled modestly and dreamed expansively.” Initially, she dismisses Bruno’s ideas as crackpot, but they come to preoccupy her. For years, she’s told herself that she was content to carry out small parts of big, murky plans, duly suppressing her curiosity. Bruno’s emails urge her to take a broader, more inquisitive view: of humanity, of history, of alternative ways she could live. But once Sadie starts asking questions, things inside her start falling apart. Not least, she starts questioning masculinity—or, rather, her ideas about it, which have dictated her espionage strategies and what she considers her success in the field. In the presence of others, Sadie the operative plays up her feminine sexual allure and compliance, but Sadie the narrator treats readers to a distinctly macho version of swagger. More than once, she notes that her breast augmentation is a calculated professional asset; she seems convinced that the same is true of her rootlessness and emotional disengagement. A hard drinker and frat-boy-style slob, she often seems to be trying to outman the men around her in her own mind, even as she must submit to them in reality. Perhaps Sadie’s most traditionally masculine quality is her terror of weakness. But over the course of Creation Lake , as Sadie’s mission within Le Moulin gets riskier, she sees that her constant projection of control is alienating her from her desires, hollowing out her vaunted autonomy, making her easy to manipulate. She’s shattered—doubly so, because falling apart emotionally shocks her. It’s a fate Kushner withheld from her previous, more guarded protagonists. By letting tough-guy Sadie break down, she writes a radical conversion that is also a bold authorial leap: Kushner lets herself ask, for the first time in her career, what happens to a woman unmoored by masculine and feminine categorizing. Putting Sadie under such intense pressure changes Creation Lake ’s nature as a story. Once Sadie starts cracking, the novel doesn’t become digressive and loose like its predecessors, but it certainly stops feeling like a thriller. After many chapters that seemed to build to a dramatic act of sabotage, the story shifts register, heading into a very different, more emotional denouement. Relinquishing some swagger, Kushner opens up in her writing to new levels of feeling and possibilities for change. In the process, she shakes up gender stereotypes in new ways. Creation Lake asks what sources of strength might be found in the kind of vulnerability, physical and emotional, that is associated with femininity. Sadie has prided herself on her supremely instrumental view of sex; she’d never get hysterical, never get too attached or lose her reason over a man. Although the strategic romance she’s begun with Lucien, a friend of Pascal’s, physically disgusts her, she boasts about not letting that get in her way. Kushner leans into the irony here: The reader sees well before Sadie does that her employers are exploiting precisely this blind willingness to obey them at real emotional cost to herself. For all that she wants to treat her body as a professional resource, she can’t do it. Kushner’s exploration of sex as a catalyst for Sadie’s emotions breaking free is fascinating. Repelled by Lucien, she risks her job by beginning an affair with a partnered member of Le Moulin that starts out enjoyable but leaves her feeling abject; in its aftermath, Sadie begins nursing bigger doubts about her life. This drama could seem retrograde, but coming from Kushner, a restored connection between female body and mind feels less traditional than transformative. Read: The book that teaches us to live with our fears Sex isn’t Sadie’s only route to a softer self. She also follows a more intellectual path to which she is led by Bruno, the cave-dwelling philosopher. Although Bruno has retreated from contemporary society, his reflections are what get Sadie to reconsider her pride in her nomadic self-sufficiency. She has long bridled at the notion that women should do—and enjoy—domestic work, and is emphatic that she will never have a baby. But she’s swayed by Bruno’s devotion to the painted caves and their former inhabitants, and by her own images of Bruno as a father, after she learns that he has grown children. Indeed, she develops a sort of daughterly love for Bruno. By the end of the novel, his meditations bring out the feelings that she has most wanted to suppress: homesickness, nostalgia, loneliness. After reading an email in which Bruno describes his sense of being existentially lost, she says aloud, “I feel that way too.” The sound of her voice “let something into the room,” Sadie goes on, “some kind of feeling. The feeling was mine, even as I observed it, watched myself as if from above.” What Sadie sees is herself crying alone in bed, an image more suited to a teen movie than a Kushner novel. Yet this moment is no performance. In the grip of uncontrollable emotion, Sadie recognizes both her vulnerability and her desire to drastically change her life. For Kushner, too, lowering the barricades against the clichés of femininity has an effect at once jarring and liberating. Her earlier novels veer away from culminating clarity, their explosive yet enigmatic endings reminding readers that her characters are too trapped and disempowered to change in the ways they want to. In Creation Lake , Sadie’s transfigured consciousness is a kind of resolution that might be mistaken for a sentimental promise of sunniness ahead—except that Kushner gives her narrator a new, daunting challenge. At the novel’s close, Sadie has already started experimenting with a life in which she engages fully rather than contorting herself to perform roles that others expect. She’s now armed with an agenda of her own, one that promises to turn her into a woman who couldn’t care less about what anyone thinks woman means. Creation Lake ’s radicals aren’t likely to upend society, but Sadie’s swerve suggests that Kushner is ready for big change. This article appears in the October 2024 print edition with the headline “Rachel Kushner's Surprising Swerve.” ​When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic. About the Author More Stories When Victimhood Takes a Bad-Faith Turn The Woman Who Made America Take Cookbooks Seriously 418 IMAGES How To Format a College Essay? A Comprehensive Guide MLA Heading and Header Formats (With Examples) College Essay Format with Style Guide and Tips MLA Format Heading MLA Heading Format and Writing Tips How to Write In College Essay Format VIDEO PLOTTIN ON ME? YEAH I KNOW THE PLOT, IM LIKE AN ESSAY HEADER 🔥 #deuczy #rap #newmusic Lecture No 19 Header and Footer Word 2007 Computer Training in Urdu Ridiculously EASY Way to Structure your College Essays 50 header ideas 2022 🌷 2021 Most Common College Essay Topics How to Stand Out on Your College Essays This Fall (8.16.2023) COMMENTS How to Format a College Essay: Step-by-Step Guide Again, we'd recommend sticking with standard fonts and sizes—Times New Roman, 12-point is a standard workhorse. You can probably go with 1.5 or double spacing. Standard margins. Basically, show them you're ready to write in college by using the formatting you'll normally use in college. Creating an MLA Header Revised on March 5, 2024. The first page of your MLA format paper starts with a four-line left-aligned header containing: Your full name. Your instructor's name. The course name and number. The date of submission. After the header, the title of the paper is centred on a new line, in title case. The header and title do not take any special ... How to write a college application essay: 7 tips + step-by-step how-to Step 0: choose a structure. By "structure," we mean what you'll use to organize your essay's content in a way that helps your reader understand clearly and easily. We'll talk through two structural options below: "montage" and "narrative.". Some quick definitions: College Application Essay Format Rules The college application essay has become the most important part of applying to college. In this article, we will go over the best college essay format for getting into top schools, including how to structure the elements of a college admissions essay: margins, font, paragraphs, spacing, headers, and organization.. We will focus on commonly asked questions about the best college essay structure. How to Format A College Essay: 15 Expert Tips · PrepScholar Clearly delineate your paragraphs. A single tab at the beginning is fine. Use a font that's easy to read, like Times, Arial, Calibri, Cambria, etc. Avoid fonts like Papyrus and Curlz. And use 12 pt font. You may want to include a college essay heading with a page number and your application ID. MLA Format Cite your MLA source. Start by applying these MLA format guidelines to your document: Use an easily readable font like 12 pt Times New Roman. Set 1 inch page margins. Use double line spacing. Include a ½" indent for new paragraphs. Include a four-line MLA heading on the first page. Center the paper's title. How to Write an Essay Header: MLA and APA Essay Headers 4. Hover over "Top of Page" and select "Plain Number 3". 5. For the MLA header, enter your last name along with the page number, both right-aligned. For the APA header, input the abbreviated version of the title in all capital letters and press the "Tab" key. MLA essay header example. APA essay header example. How to Format and Structure Your College Essay 1. In-the-moment narrative. This is where you tell the story one moment at a time, sharing the events as they occur. In the moment narrative is a powerful essay format, as your reader experiences the events, your thoughts, and your emotions with you. This structure is ideal for a specific experience involving extensive internal dialogue ... How to format a college essay header? Hi there! When it comes to formatting a college essay header, simplicity is key. Most colleges prefer the following format: - In the top left corner of the first page, include your full name, followed by a space, and then your high school (or the abbreviation of your high school name). - On the line below your high school's name, type the course title (if applicable) or the purpose of the ... Ultimate Guide to Writing Your College Essay Sample College Essay 2 with Feedback. This content is licensed by Khan Academy and is available for free at www.khanacademy.org. College essays are an important part of your college application and give you the chance to show colleges and universities your personality. This guide will give you tips on how to write an effective college essay. What's the right way to create a header for my college essay? Understanding the appropriate format for your college essay header is definitely an important step to ensure your application is professionally presented. Typically, you should include your name, the date, and depending on the application system, sometimes the title of your essay or the college prompt you're responding to. The Common ... Complete Guide to Essay Format: MLA, APA, and Chicago Explained Fonts: Standard college essays typically use a uniform font for consistency and readability. Times New Roman is the most widely accepted font, though Arial is sometimes permitted. ... Header: Unlike APA format, MLA does not usually require a title page. Instead, your name, your professor's name, the course name, and the date should be listed ... MLA Format: Headings to Citations, the Full Guide Creating MLA Headers in Microsoft Word. If you're writing your paper in Microsoft Word, follow these steps: Click Insert. Scroll down to Page Numbers and click on it. Set the position to "Top of Page (Header)". Set the alignment to "Right". Make sure there's no checkmark in the box for "Show number on first page". Proper college essay heading format? Certainly! The proper heading format for a college essay is pretty straightforward. Here's a quick guide to help you out: 1. Align your text to the left. Most college essays use a standard left-aligned format, as it's easy to read and universally accepted. 2. Use a legible, 12-point font. Times New Roman, Arial, and Calibri are some common, easy-to-read options. College Essay Format & Structure There are no set rules for how to structure a college application essay, but you should carefully plan and outline to make sure your essay flows smoothly and logically. Typical structural choices include. a series of vignettes with a common theme. a single story that demonstrates your positive qualities. Although many structures can work, there ... College Assignment Heading: A Simple Guide for Formatting Avoid Unnecessary Information: Keep the college heading concise, avoiding any extra text or embellishments. Capitalization and Punctuation: Properly capitalize and punctuate your essay heading consistent with style guidelines, ensuring consistency across the prep. Consistency: Use identical size, font, and style for all components in your header. LibGuides: MLA Format Guide To add your header, either double-click in the top inch of the page or select the "Insert" tab in Microsoft Word, navigate to the "Header & Footer" section, select "Header," and click the first option titled "Blank." ... At the end of your essay, insert a page break (found under the "Insert" tab) and center the words "Works Cited" at the top of ... MLA General Format In the case of a group project, list all names of the contributors, giving each name its own line in the header, followed by the remaining MLA header requirements as described below. Format the remainder of the page as requested by the instructor. In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor's name, the ... How to Write a College Essay Step-by-Step Step 2: Pick one of the things you wrote down, flip your paper over, and write it at the top of your paper, like this: This is your thread, or a potential thread. Step 3: Underneath what you wrote down, name 5-6 values you could connect to this. These will serve as the beads of your essay. How to Write a College Essay Making an all-state team → outstanding achievement. Making an all-state team → counting the cost of saying "no" to other interests. Making a friend out of an enemy → finding common ground, forgiveness. Making a friend out of an enemy → confront toxic thinking and behavior in yourself. How to Write In College Essay Format Margins: 1 inch all around. Font: Usually Times Roman, 11 to 12 point. Heading: Yes — follow illustration below. Page number: Yes — upper left hand, with last name. Instructions on automatically setting up this information using Microsoft Word. First, second and Works Cited page of APA formatted essay. 27 Outstanding College Essay Examples From Top Universities 2024 This college essay tip is by Abigail McFee, Admissions Counselor for Tufts University and Tufts '17 graduate. 2. Write like a journalist. "Don't bury the lede!" The first few sentences must capture the reader's attention, provide a gist of the story, and give a sense of where the essay is heading. How to Write and Format Headings in Academic Writing Capitalization, formatting and sequencing. At the outset, make a plan for how you will deal with matters of capitalization, formatting and sequencing of headings. Headings at the same level should be formatted the same. For instance, "Section 2.2" should get the same treatment as "Section 4.1". What is a Thesis Paper and How to Write One A thesis paper is a type of academic essay that you might write as a college graduation requirement. The 5 components to a standard thesis typically include an introduction, literature review, methods and results, discussion and conclusion. Meg Palmer Sep 3, 2024 From choosing a topic and conducting research to crafting a strong argument ... Rachel Kushner's Surprising Swerve "Sometimes I am boggled by the gallery of souls I've known. By the lore. The wild history, unsung," Rachel Kushner writes in The Hard Crowd, her 2021 essay collection. "People crowd in and ... 35+ Best College Essay Tips from College Application Experts Use your essays to empower your chances of acceptance, merit money, and scholarships.". This college essay tip is by Dr. Rebecca Joseph, professor at California State University and founder of All College Application Essays, develops tools for making the college essay process faster and easier. 15. Get personal. assignment essay homework paper phd report resume review speech thesis